Denison Farms

Corvallis, Oregon

Community Supported Agriculture

In
this fragmented world, it is good to build relationships, particularly around something as
wholesome and healthy as real food. Join us this year.

Membership Information
for Denison Farms Harvest Box

2018
Membership Information

Here's
how to join:

Send your name, address, telephone number, and
email address along with a check for the membership fee to
Denison Farms, 1835 NE Steele Ave., Corvallis, OR 97330.
Please indicate to which pick-up
location you would like us to deliver your box, and whether
you prefer to receive a confirmation of registration by email or
USPS. If you are sharing a box, please include name and
address information for all families.
We would like to save paper when
possible. If you like to read the weekly newsletter on our web
site, and don't need to pick up a paper copy, please indicate this
on your registration. We will make just enough copies of the
newsletter for everyone who wants a paper copy. To read the online
newsletter, you will need to visit our web site (CSA Newsletters). We don't have the
capability to email the letter directly to your inbox.

2018 Season
Our Harvest Box season is 25
weeks in length, beginning June 5th and continuing until the week of
Thanksgiving. You can pick up your weekly box in Corvallis, Albany or Salem on Tuesday
afternoons, or in Corvallis on
Wednesday morning. We are happy to add members during the season.
Call or email the farm for information about our pro rated
membership fee.Membership: Our membership
fee is $595.00 for the full 25 week season. You can make two
payments of $300 each (second payment is due August 1st). If you
join and pay your membership fee in full by April 1st, you may pay
a discounted membership fee of $575.00. Call the farm for a pro rated membership fee if joining
after the start of the season. Pick Up Sites: Upon
registering we ask that you indicate from the following options
where you would like to pick up your Harvest Box:

ConfirmationAfter receiving your membership, we will email you a
confirmation letter. If no email address is provided, we'll
send your confirmation by USPS.What will be in the harvest box?Take a look at last year'snewsletters
for examples of what you'll be getting in your box this year.

Vacation Credit
If you're planning to be out of town for vacation, tell us at
least a week in advance and we will give you credit for up to
two boxes during the season.

If you have any additional questions, please call us
(541-752-4156) or email denisonfarms@peak.org.

Community Supported
Agriculture (CSA) is an opportunity for people who
like to eat fruits and vegetables (that would be you) and people
who grow the same (that would be us) to join in partnership so
that all can benefit.

What it means to you:

Your weekly Harvest Box will be filled with fresh-picked,
top-quality certified organic produce every week June through
Thanksgiving.

Each box comes with a newsletter with recipes and news from
the farm.

Tour the farm in early summer at our member’s potluck.

Save shopping time because your produce is already gathered
and ready to pick-up; and you save money compared with buying
the same produce at a Farmers' Market.

Feel a closer connection to nature as you see the
progression of the seasons in your Harvest Boxes.

As we share our produce with you, we receive respect and
appreciation directly from you. That feels good!

Your membership fee paid in the spring reduces the amount
of money we need to borrow to pay for soil amendments, seeds,
and labor.

Your support encourages us to continue sustainable land
stewardship. We use certified organic practices including
crop-specific nutrition, beneficial insects, crop rotation,
and cover crops to maintain and preserve soil tilth and
productivity.

Our 2018 Harvest Box should look very
similar to last year’s box. Our box relies heavily on familiar
items. You can expect tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, garlic or
onions, and fruit nearly every week. We grow a lot of
strawberries and raspberries. Typically, each box has either a
head of lettuce, or 1/2 pound of salad mix, or 1/2 pound of
spinach. Potatoes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, and (in the fall)
sweet peppers appear frequently. The balance of the box will be
a carefully selected seasonal assortment of vegetables, fruits,
greens, roots, and herbs. Recipes are provided for
less familiar vegetables.

We may enhance the variety of organic fruits and vegetables in
your box by collaborating with a few of our friends who grow
high quality organic produce.

If you want to know more specifically what was in each box last
year, check our Harvest Box Newsletters
to see the items and quantities for each box.

Frequently Asked Questions

When can I sign up for membership with Denison Farms Harvest
Box?
We begin accepting memberships in mid-February
each year. If you want to receive a brochure in the mail, send
your mailing address to us (denisonfarms @ peak.org).

How many people will this harvest
box feed?
This is by far the most common question we
get. We have found that the amount of produce a household
consumes varies greatly. It depends on how often you eat out or
invite friends over, whether you are vegetarian, vegan, or
omnivore, and whether you are going to supplement your diet with
bananas, oranges, avocados and other things that don’t grow in
Corvallis. The best way to decide if our box will suit your
household is to spend some time looking through the newsletters from the last couple
seasons. Each newsletter lists what is in the box that week,
so browsing through a season or two should give you a good idea of
whether our box would fit into your lifestyle.

Do you offer half-shares? We offer only one size box. Many people
who want only a half share find a friend or neighbor who would
like to share with them. Before you decide to share, please check
our newsletters from the past few
years and read what produce was in our box last season. Our box
tends to have more tomatoes, sweet peppers, strawberries,
raspberries, and apples; and fewer greens, cabbages, kohlrabi, and
lettuce than CSA boxes from many other farms.
Will your box supply all the produce needs of my family? Probably not if your household has 4
people who eat as many fruits and vegetables as current dietary
recommendations (half your plate should be vegetables and fruits).
If your goal is to eat that much produce, you should expect to
supplement what is in your weekly box. Hundreds of families find
that the box suits their needs. Others love our box, but desire
more greens and fruit than we provide, so they purchase additional
local produce at the farmers market, or they supplement with
bananas, oranges, and other non-local produce from the store.
Please check our newsletters from
past seasons to see how much produce is typically in our
box.
When can I start getting a box?
Our season runs from June until Thanksgiving
week and you can join at any time with a one-week notice.
You get a small discount for paying in full before April first,
and it costs a little more per week to join after the season has
begun. The best way to contact us for a pro rated membership fee
after the season has started is by email.

Is Denison Farms certified
organic?
Yes, we have been certified organic by Oregon
Tilth since 1988.

Does Denison Farms grow
everything in the harvest box?
No. We grow over 90% of what is in the
box. To increase variety we include some organic produce
grown by friends of ours. Apples from La Mancha ranch, pears
from Gala Springs, or corn from Groundwork Organics are
some examples from prior seasons.

Is this the cheapest way to feed
my family organic produce?
Probably not. If your primary goal is to get
the most pounds of local organic produce for your dollar, it is
probably more economical to go to the farmers market and buy what
is on special that week. Our Harvest Box has lots of things people
love to eat such as raspberries, strawberries, cherry tomatoes,
and red peppers, but these cost more than cabbage, winter squash,
or russet potatoes. If you like what we put in our box (see
Newsletters), then our box is more
economical than buying the same items at the farmers market, and
also more economical than purchasing comparable produce at the
grocery store. Due to global economics, particularly the low cost
of labor in Central America, sometimes imported produce can be
cheaper than locally-grown produce. But we think our produce
tastes better than produce shipped from afar, and is better for
you because it's so fresh!

Will there be things in the box
that I don’t like?
Good question! Remember that we will be
choosing what’s in your produce drawer for half a year. This
can be very hard for some people. Be sure to spend some time
browsing the newsletters on our
website to see if what we have supplied in the past is what you
want to eat. The people who enjoy our box the most are those
who enjoy most kinds of produce, or trying new things. Our
box pick-up sites do have a trade box, where you can exchange
something in your box with something from the trade box, but we
make no guarantees that you will like everything in your box.
Our box frequently includes tomatoes,
basil, sweet peppers, strawberries, raspberries, and potatoes. If
you don't eat one of those regularly-appearing items, then our box
may not be a good fit for you.

Is there a way to get extra
quantities of berries, tomatoes, peppers, basil etc. to preserve
for the winter?
Yes, you can ask to be notified when we have
specials on bulk quantities. Send me an email (denisonfarms @
peak.org), and I'll get you on the appropriate list for
notification.